City Wants Private Employers to Stop Asking Job Applicants about Criminal Backgrounds

By ELIZABETH HSING-HUEI CHOU
City News Service

Mayor Eric Garcetti and Councilman Curren Price announced an effort today to improve the employment chances of Angelenos who are often turned away from job opportunities due to their criminal records.

Starting July 1, state and local governments, including the city, will be restricted from asking job candidates about criminal convictions on their employment applications, under a law Gov. Jerry Brown signed in 2013. But city leaders said they want to go a step further by exploring additional measures to strengthen protections locally, including preventing private employers from asking applicants about criminal records.

The state law "opened the door for a fair and just system for the formerly incarcerated," said Price, who is spearheading the effort.

The councilman introduced a motion that calls on various city departments and the City Attorney's Office to study the "feasibility" of policies "to remove barriers for individuals with a criminal record" and to look at what other cities have done.

Connie Llanos, an aide for Price, said city officials will consider several options, such as also requiring private employers and city contractors to refrain from asking about criminal records on job applications. The City Attorney's Office will study what has been done elsewhere to help officials determine "what's going to work best for Los Angeles," she said.

Price's motion was seconded by City Councilman Paul Koretz and Council President Herb Wesson, and was assigned to the Economic Development Committee.

The mayor and Price announced the initiative to cheers from members of L.A. Voice, Homeboy Industries and other groups during a City Hall news conference.

"Los Angeles is a city of second chances," Garcetti proclaimed.

He spoke amid a crowd of people carrying signs with the slogan "ban the box," which refers to removing the check box and job application question asking whether candidates have ever been convicted of a crime.

Garcetti said that with the state law going into effect, the city will no longer ask about a job candidate's criminal record "at the beginning of the hiring process."

He said the "formerly incarcerated" add to the "strength of this city," and if given "family support, community assistance, economic opportunity, they will make different choices -- they will stay out of the criminal justice system."

They will in turn contribute to the local economy and public safety will improve, he said.

Price said a criminal record reduces a person's chance of employment by 50 percent, and the lack of a job contributes to a high number of people returning to prison.

"It's no wonder we have such a high recidivism rate when opportunities are limited and people are just cut out of the job market," he said.

Questions about criminal records have especially hurt the ability of black and Latino job-seekers to get hired, Price said.

"We've all known somebody who struggled with this, personal friends, family members and others," he said.

What Los Angeles is attempting has already been done in other cities and states that have adopted laws to prevent all employers, including private companies, from asking about criminal records, according to Michelle Natividad Rodriguez, an attorney with the National Employment Law Project.

The group represented by Rodriguez has been pushing to remove questions about criminal records from job applications.

San Francisco recently adopted an ordinance that applies not just to the public sector but also to private employers, while New York has just introduced a motion, Rodriguez said.

Four states -- Massachusetts, Hawaii, Rhode Island and Minnesota -- also prohibit all employers, including private companies, from asking about criminal records on job applications, she said.

The state law taking effect July 1 in California "really is just the floor," and would not preclude employers from asking about criminal records or conducting a criminal background check later in the hiring process, according to Rodriguez.

"It's basically asking, 'Take the question off of the job application and delay it until later in the hiring process,"' she said.

"But we're asking for cities and counties like Los Angeles -- which is really taking the lead -- to do more than that, and they're saying they're going to explore that," she said.

WHAT DO YOU THINK OF THE IDEA? ENCOURAGING FOR THE EX-CON OR DANGEROUS FOR THE PRIVATE EMPLOYER? TELL US IN THE COMMENTS.